Revolution Brewing picks up two gold medals at World Beer Cup

Chicago-area brewpubs won a combined three gold medals at this weekend's World Beer Cup in San Diego, one of the most eagerly-watched competitions in the craft beer world.

Revolution Brewing won two golds, scoring top honors among English-style summer ales for its Cross of Gold blond ale and in the American-Style Stout category for its Rise American Stout, a well-hopped, medium-bodied stout.

Haymarket Pub and Brewery won gold in the American-Belgo-Style Ale category for its Last Chance Belgian India pale ale.

Other local winners included Goose Island (silver in Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer for King Henry barleywine) and Flossmoor Station (bronze medal in English-Style India Pale Ale for Intercontinental Pale Ale).

A tip of the beer cap also to Galena Brewing Co., which won silver among American-style brown ales for its Uptown Brown, BrickStone Restaurant & Brewery in Bourbonnais, which won bronze for Brickstone pale ale in the American-Style Pale Ale category and Shoreline Brewery in Michigan City, Ind. (a mere 60 miles from the Loop), which scored two bronze medals: for Benny's Pale Ale (in the field of Australasian-Style Pale Ale or International-Style Pale Ale) and its Beltaine Scottish Alein the Scottish-Style Ales category.

Oh, and in the hotly contested American-Style Lager or Light Lager category, Coors Light won gold, Michelob Ultra won silver and Michelob Light took bronze. That's right: Michelob won two more medals than Half Acre and Three Floyds combined. Maybe it's time to rethink this craft beer thing.

The full list of winners, worth perusing if you would be amused by a Memphis brewery beating out two German breweries in the German-style pale wheat ale category, can be found here.